Paolo is an Italian photographer who enjoys finding beauty in common things and daily scenes. His cleverly composed images are simple and uncomplicated, favoring those unnoticed gestures that enlighten our daily lives.

Following we present the interview that we had with Paolo:

am - First of all thank you very much for your contribution to our project. Can you please tell us where are you from and what do you do at the moment?

PI - I’m from Italy. I was born in a small town in southern Italy, Polla. For ten years now, I’ve lived and worked in Rome. In this exact moment I do the father, the husband and the photographer.

am - How did you start in photography?

PI - My cousin has always had a passion for photography, maybe she gave me the virus.

am - What inspires your work?

PI - The ordinary daily things.

am - Who are your favourite photographers / artists?

PI - It is reductive to mention just few names: I love the works of the ‘70s, the American photography and the Japanese one, with their almost opposite approaches. Stephen Shore or Robert Adams, few years later Eggleston inspired me the same way as Daido Moriyama and the Japanese photographers in the vanguard magazine “Provoke”. From Diane Arbus to Rinko Kawauchi, from Luigi Ghirri to Guido Guidi, I could enumerate them for hours. I try to draw something from each of them.

am - How would you describe your visual language?

PI - I search for an aesthetic vision in all the places I live and walk through. I look at them with a democratic eye, never picking favorites.

am- When you are not taking pictures, what do you do?

PI - I change my child’s diapers.

am - What are 5 things you could absolutely not live without?

PI - I’m very adaptable to any situation, but without a camera I would feel very uncomfortable.

am - If you could travel and stay in a place for one year, where would you choose to go?

PI - The Antarctic.

am - Favourite songs / bands at the moment?

PI - Moderat.

am - What’s your favourite movie?

PI - 3-Iron directed by Kim Ki-duk.

am - What’s your favourite author?

PI - Friedrich Nietzsche.

am - Your main unanswered question in life?

PI - This is my obsession: “What is all this shit about Angels? Have you herd this? 3 out of 4 people believe in Angels. Are you FUCKING STUPID? Has everybody lost their mind? You know what I think it is? I think it’s a massive, collective, psychotic chemical flashback for all the drugs smoked, swallowed, shot, and absorbed rectally by all Americans from 1960 to 1990. 30 years of street drugs will get you some fucking Angels my friend! [George Carlin, from “You Are All Diseased”.]

am - Do you have any project in mind that could be a personal or professional challenge?

PI - I would like lo live in a quiet place, enjoy my family and work with photography. It’s a hard challenge!

am - Thank you very much for your time and your contribution to analog magazine.